John Rocco, Los AngelesMember Since October 2006Artist Statement John Rocco studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design and School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is the author of several acclaimed books for children: Wolf! Wolf!, winner of the Borders Original Voices Award for best picture book; Moonpowder, part of the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators; Fu Finds the Way, and Blackout, winner of the Caldecott Honor and a New York Times Best Book of the Year. Rocco also illustrated Whoopi Goldberg's Alice and the covers for Rick Riordan's three multi-million copy internationally bestselling series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, and The Heroes of Olympus. Most recently, Rocco illustrated the fantasy fairy tale The Flint Heart, written by Katherine Paterson and her husband, John.

For many years Rocco has also been an art director in the entertainment industry, both in the US and abroad. At Dreamworks, Rocco was the pre-production art director on the top-grossing animated film Shrek. For Walt Disney Imagineering, he designed attractions at Disney's Epcot and served as art director for DisneyQuest, a virtual reality theme park in Downtown Disney. At ImagineAsia in Manila, Philippines, he oversaw production of CGI animation, motion capture and story development for several projects. Rocco has worked with computer graphics pioneer Robert Abel, the creator of some of the first CGI commercials and special effects, and contributed to several museum projects including Newseum in Washington D.C. and Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. A solo exhibition of Rocco’s work appeared at the Orlando Museum of Modern Art, July-October 2012.